Inspirational Places

Once, I hankered after exotic destinations but I love this country and now content with traveling to my favourite spots.  They provide both time to empty myself and soak up numinous sea and landscapes...but mainly seascapes.  

I visit several places along our Southwest coastline, but mostly Cornwall.  St Ives for it's harbour and surrounding beaches, historic tumbling warren of quaint streets and alleys originally built for fishermen's cottages.    The feast of art goes without saying. St.Ives, particularly, is steeped in the modern tradition of art and contemporary works still pay homage to early inspiration and style. I love it for the painting, the fine art and the makers work...and I love that there is little value distinction between the two. 

I also have a gentler but powerful love for Hayle town situated  about 7 miles up the coast on the Hayle Estuary in St Ives Bay. I alternate visits to both spending aimless fertile hours wandering along the tidelines picking up objets trouvés. My creative batteries are on turbo charge and all I have to do is be there.  Try it. Go for a long walk in a favorite place and see how you feel the rest of the day, or night.  If you can't walk very well, go and sit there. I say sit because past experiences in mobility difficulties  made me acutely aware that not everybody can travel on their own two feet, a joy of living I took for granted. I'm pacing now, weening off the 21st century boom and bust mode getting around very well...

waves of gratitude. 

St Ives Harbour looking towards Smeaton's Pier left, and the outlet faces the mouth of Hayle Estuary and the massive sand dunes, or Towens.
There is still a busy fishing industry of small boats with restaurants and Bistros thriving on the fresh catches.  The Harbour Master (in a wee stone office further left of the pier) chalks up the shipping forecasts, and the odd saucy quote. We miss them when he's being proper. 

Weston-super-Mare Jan 2014

I live on, or near the coast too, Weston-super-Mare in North Somerset.  Because we are on the edge of the Bristol channel,  the sea bed is full of silt, which churns around in the tide.  What we lack in clear blue waters and bright sand we gain in a wonderfully rugged coastline and the most stunning sunsets and sunrises. The sun faces the right way! We also have National Trust Land either end of our long coastline: Sand Bay and Brean Down. This is the Causeway spanning Marine Lake and Knightstone Island.  The tiny islands of Flat Holm to the left, and Steep Holm further away on the right.  Cardiff is across the channel and we can see Wales in the distance at pending rain spells. 

A bit more about Hayle: 

Beach glass picking is now very popular but the tide seems to keep churning it up.  I have enough and concentrate more on worn objects or sea worn pieces of slate.  It's true what they say about the special quality of the light, how it bounces  back from the pale shell sea-bed illuminated by the sky giving off a magical luminescence, especially at dusk.